US Election 2024

[shakahislop]

Reddit's funny to observe as it's very liberal and most of the userbase are having various forms of meltdown in their typically embarrassing way.

i think you have to somehow avoid using politics as a set of language and concepts to express your day to day emotional turmoil. so much writing and speech on it is a soothing balm, a scream, an attempt to grasp control. no-one is immune from that. it makes it harder to understand the world though, if that's something you want to do

 

[versh]

The pundits on American news networks are completely deluded or just thick too. I saw someone yesterday claiming Kamala ran a flawless campaign, specifically highlighting how many celebrity endorsements she had...

 

[versh]

i think you have to somehow avoid using politics as a set of language and concepts to express your day to day emotional turmoil. so much writing and speech on it is a soothing balm, a scream, an attempt to grasp control. no-one is immune from that. it makes it harder to understand the world though, if that's something you want to do

There are a lot of women on Reddit who seem to be taking the result as a declaration of war and posting about how they're going to divorce their husbands, leave their boyfriends, arm themselves, etc. They seem to view all of American politics through this very reductive lens of heterosexual gender relations.

 

[Mr. Tea]

There are a lot of women on Reddit who seem to be taking the result as a declaration of war and posting about how they're going to divorce their husbands, leave their boyfriends, arm themselves, etc. They seem to view all of American politics through this very reductive lens of heterosexual gender relations.

Yeah, it's crazy how worked up people can get about issues that directly and personally affect them, isn't it.

 

[0bleak]

not apropos of any specific post, but I'm gonna call bullshit on TDS once and for all.
How many times have we seen people lose their minds over ANY president opposite of their political affiliation.
q anon cultists, evangelical christian end-of-days types, conspiracy theorists in militia groups, etc (you get my point)

 

[versh]

Yeah, it's crazy how worked up people can get about issues directly and personally affect them, isn't it.

Obviously, but if you want to prevent this sort of thing happening in the future then that kind of cathartic but reductive analysis isn't going to help you. She clearly didn't lose purely because she was a woman and a performative doubling down on the culture war shit is only going to make matters worse.

Sanders has been pointing in the right direction for God knows how long and the Democratic establishment just refuse to listen.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Whatever the faults of the Democratic party, they're nonetheless not actively taking a gigantic shit on working people by, for example, slashing taxes for billionaires and making up the shortfall by imposing huge tariffs on imports, making virtually everything more expensive. So almost anyone who isn't actively rich is likely to see a substantial fall in their living standards. Elon Musk has been braying about this and isn't even trying to hide the erection he gets while saying it.

 

[dilbert1]

Whatever the faults of the Democratic party, they're nonetheless not actively taking a gigantic shit on working people

And any working people whose belief is to the contrary are to be shit on and blamed as part of the problem. I’m with you there

 

[versh]

Whatever the faults of the Democratic party, they're nonetheless not actively taking a gigantic shit on working people by, for example, slashing taxes for billionaires and making up the shortfall by imposing huge tariffs on imports, making virtually everything more expensive. So almost anyone who isn't actively rich is likely to see a substantial fall in their living standards. Elon Musk has been braying about this and isn't even trying to hide the erection he gets while saying it.

Yeah, but this is also too reductive an analysis. You can't just look at the economy or identity politics or sexism or racism or nationalism or immigration or any of these factors in isolation. Also, the entire American upper class are taking a gigantic shit on working people every day. The Democrats are more polite about it and throw the odd bone, but they're just as unwilling to rock the boat.

 

[shakahislop]

our boy william kent has really changed his tone. this must be what he's like when he's sober

 

[william_kent]

our boy william kent has really changed his tone. this must be what he's like when he's sober

FVUCK BILL / kILL BIIL: I've gone off the rails though, fuck knows what happened, it's like I've had a rum infusion

 

[Goth Feet ASMR]

voted a few times in Pennsylvania today and got a cat in the pot for dinner

 

[Mr. Tea]

FVUCK BILL / kILL BIIL: I've gone off the rails though, fuck knows what happened, it's like I've had a rum infusion

@william kent:



"@Version":

 

[qwerty south]

I think the celeb endorsement ads may have been a minor factor in Labour's 2015 flop in the UK too

 

[Mr. Tea]

Yeah, but this is also too reductive an analysis. You can't just look at the economy or identity politics or sexism or racism or nationalism or immigration or any of these factors in isolation.

Well, I'm not though, am I? I'm talking about the economy as well. And there is a much bigger difference between the parties than you're allowing.

A big part of the problem is that many people have no understanding of economics and/or a very short memory and/or just uncritically believe whatever the very partisan media they consume tell them. (This is by no means a problem that's unique to the US, obviously.)

In particular, they don't understand that there's often a delay of a year or two between a government doing (or failing to do) something and the effect being felt by the public. So it's an article of faith among GOP voters that Biden caused gas prices to rise a few years ago, because he was president at the time, and the president is in charge; so it must have been his fault, right? Except Trump caused it by blackmailing the Saudis into lowering their oil output precisely to drive up the international price of crude in order to benefit American producers.

Likewise, inflation shot up in 2022 mainly as a result of the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, which was as severe as it was because Trump bungled the response from the start, and in fact had disbanded the pandemic response unit that should have helped prepare the country for just such an eventuality. It's now back down almost to pre-pandemic levels at a virtually negligible 2.4%, thanks to Biden's policies, but many people have said they were going to vote Trump "to rein in inflation", which they still think is high because Fox News tells them it's high. No doubt once Trump is reinstalled in the White House, the narrative will suddenly switch to "Trump defeats inflation."

So Biden gets blamed for problems Trump caused the first time round, and Trump will take the credit for Biden's achievements. Meanwhile a "curse on both their houses" attitude among progressives who, like Trump supporters, are unaware of all this, can only ever benefit Trump.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Another point is that even if a lot of ordinary Americans are convinced there's no substabtive difference between the main parties, the likes of Musk, Thiel and the Koch brothers apparently disagree because they all back Trump to the hilt, which speaks volumes in itself, doesn't it?

 

[0bleak]

On the bright side, I won't have to deal with sickening "inspirational" and misinformational stories about Walz's son regarding regarding his nonverbal learning disorder/adhd/anxiety.
I was a bit afraid of that to be honest since nvld is already misunderstood as it is (if anyone has actually heard of it), and that it has a variety of symptoms, and every symptom within has a spectrum.

I can have know people for years (decades, my whole life even) that still don't really understand it even after being diagnosed decades ago so it's kind of hard enough already as it is.

Anyway, the point being and good analogy to draw since the conditions overlap and many people have both, is that when the movie Rain Man came out, Hoffman's character became the image and stereotype of autism, and if you've lived with a disorder like that, the "why can/do you or don't/can't do this when this person does that" questions become tiresome.

 

[versh]

Another point is that even if a lot of ordinary Americans are convinced there's no substabtive difference between the main parties, the likes of Musk, Thiel and the Koch brothers apparently disagree because they all back Trump to the hilt, which speaks volumes in itself, doesn't it?

They'll back whoever suits them in the moment. Musk voted for Hillary in 2016 and has donated to the Democrats in the past whilst Trump himself has been a Republican, a Democrat and an independent at various times.

 

[yyaldrin]

does anyone actually know what musk his role or influence/power will be in trump's team?

 

[versh]

Well, I'm not though, am I? I'm talking about the economy as well. And there is a much bigger difference between the parties than you're allowing.

A big part of the problem is that many people have no understanding of economics and/or a very short memory and/or just uncritically believe whatever the very partisan media they consume tell them. (This is by no means a problem that's unique to the US, obviously.)

In particular, they don't understand that there's often a delay of a year or two between a government doing (or failing to do) something and the effect being felt by the public. So it's an article of faith among GOP voters that Biden caused gas prices to rise a few years ago, because he was president at the time, and the president is in charge; so it must have been his fault, right? Except Trump caused it by blackmailing the Saudis into lowering their oil output precisely to drive up the international price of crude in order to benefit American producers.

Likewise, inflation shot up in 2022 mainly as a result of the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, which was as severe as it was because Trump bungled the response from the start, and in fact had disbanded the pandemic response unit that should have helped prepare the country for just such an eventuality. It's now back down almost to pre-pandemic levels at a virtually negligible 2.4%, thanks to Biden's policies, but many people have said they were going to vote Trump "to rein in inflation", which they still think is high because Fox News tells them it's high. No doubt once Trump is reinstalled in the White House, the narrative will suddenly switch to "Trump defeats inflation."

So Biden gets blamed for problems Trump caused the first time round, and Trump will take the credit for Biden's achievements. Meanwhile a "curse on both their houses" attitude among progressives who, like Trump supporters, are unaware of all this, can only ever benefit Trump.

I think you're letting the Dems off too easily. Biden shouldn't have run a second time, the party and affiliated media shouldn't have spent months lying about his mental state and trying to pull the wool over people's eyes while they watched him deteriorate in public, Harris shouldn't have been the pick to replace him and they should have been more on the ball re: new media. A lot of younger Americans don't give a shit about Fox, CNN, etc. but millions of them listen to podcasts and Trump understood this, or at least had people around him who did, and reaped the rewards.

It's not just a case of "the GOP brainwashed everyone." The Democrats fumbled the ball.